Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 31 (Patreon)

Chapter 31

The smell of a field tent overflowing with sick people was always the same, no matter what world I was on.  It brought back a flood of memories, all of them awful.  Instead of letting them wash over me, I focused on what was in the here and now.  Over thirty rickety cots were crowded into the large canvas shelter they had erected on the field in front of their church, and the tent had been here long enough that the grassy ground was turning yellow from lack of sunlight.

“Who is the worst off?”  At first glance, it was pretty obvious to me that the row of smaller cots near the entrance were the priority, but I wanted to see what Lilly had to say before I jumped straight in.  I watched as two caretakers in the robes of the local clergy walked between the tight rows, chanting prayers and wiping faces with damp cloths.

“Old Man Cromegas.  He’s having trouble breathing.”  She pointed me toward the back corner of the large tent, where a gnarled old figure was curled up in a fetal position.  “He probably doesn’t have much time left.”

I squeezed my way over to him, and drew a small circle on his forehead with my index finger.  There were too many people here for me to repeat what I had done to Granny Crow, so I used a small flush of energy to feel how bad his system was doing.  I was shocked to discover he was another shifter, this time some form of tortoise.  I didn’t even know there were tortoise shifters, and visions of Raphael and Donatello–my favorite brothers–ran through my memories.  Man, I missed television.  I shook my head wistfully, giving up on thoughts of hope and fun.

“You can’t help him?”  Lilly was halfway leaning on me, peeking over my shoulder.  Apparently, seeing me do magic made her forget that I was supposed to be threatening.  “He’s our village’s only carpenter.  Saving him would mean a lot to the people here.”

“He isn’t a kick-ass ninja that defeats crime?”  She just looked at me like I was speaking a different language.  That was fair.  “Disappointing, but yes.  I can save him.”

I invested another chunk of mana into his body after licking my finger and drawing a larger circle.  Focusing the power on his spine allowed his brain to reconnect to his nervous system, and his breathing immediately got easier.  I cleaned up his lungs–years of wood dust had left them in rough shape–which made his color improve almost immediately.  One last pass to get rid of his fever and reduce the swelling around his spine and joints, and I called it good enough.

As I sat up from leaning over Old Man Cromegas, Lilly gasped in surprise.  “You really did it!  You healed him!”  Her shouts brought the attention of the clerics, but they thankfully kept to their work instead of coming over to talk to me.  “Are you an important person in the Healer’s Guild?  You have to be, with magic like that.”

“Nope.”  I looked around, seeing a teenage boy who was almost as bad off as Cromegas had been and scooted over to his cot.  “I’m not in any guild, actually.  I’m just passing through on my way to Greendown.”  Her mouth dropped open in surprise, so I kept talking while I started healing the kid in front of me.

“Greendown?”  Old Man Cromegas shifted uncomfortably as he spoke in a rasp, the strength in his own voice surprising him most of all.

“Shhh, rest now.”  One of the clergy swooped in to calm him down, tossing me a grateful look laced with incredulity.

I gave them a nod of recognition before turning back to Lilly.  “Almost every village I come to along the way has some kind of serious problem.  I swear, it’s like there’s something out there trying to keep me from getting to my destination.  Although, all of these problems have really driven home the fact that the current guild system isn’t working for the people.  Take the Healer’s Guild, for example.  Do you see them here right now?”  I pointedly looked around as feeling came back to the boy’s limbs.   “No.  I see some clergy members offering comfort, but no actual healing.  Even a halfway decent herbalist would be able to treat the fevers here with willow bark if they were available, but they aren’t.  Maybe the guilds were a good thing a long time ago, but now?  It just provides roadblocks for people to fend for themselves, and political clout for a select few who want money and power.  Wouldn’t you agree?”

Lilly was doing the gasping-fish-mouth-thing, so I shrugged and moved on to the next patient.  By this point, I was pretty sure I was dealing with some kind of polio.  The majority of the damage I was seeing centered around the spinal cord, so I quickly focused on getting through everyone still waiting for healing.  All of them would eventually recover.  Keeping new infections from happening was the next step.

When I got done, I was beyond drained.  The low mana of this world was still a problem, no matter what upgrades I had gained.  I was also incredibly hungry.  “Lilly, do you guys have some place I can get some food around here?  I need to eat and rest a little before I track down where the twisting sickness came from.”

“Um, we can see if Granny Crow is cooking something.  She always makes extra, in case people don’t feel like cooking for their evening meal that day.”  Lilly led the way out of the tent, the two of us leaving behind thirty people that were rapidly looking like they could go home.  We walked in silence for a bit before she finally worked up the courage to talk to me again.  “I don’t know if I agree with you, mister.  Not about everything you said.”

“What do you mean?”  I was only halfway paying attention to her.  A section of the village had fallen into disrepair a long time ago, most notably a bunkhouse and horse stables near the wall.  It looked like the village had hosted a contingent of soldiers at some point.  Rain had caused mold to run rampant, the stink of stables left to rot was overpowering, and the combination was playing hell with my stomach.  “What don’t you agree with?”

“About the guilds.  They do help us.”  Lilly motioned to the opposite gate from where I entered.  “We’re close enough to Greendown that they come here only a few days after we ask.”

“Really?  Every time you ask, they come running?”  I cocked an eyebrow, the disbelief obvious on my face.  “Kid, if you believe that, I’ve got some beautiful oceanfront property to sell you in the great state of Arizona.”

“Huh?”  Lilly must have been a quick study, because she moved right past the part she didn’t understand.  “No, they don’t come every time.  Only when it’s really important, and they have the members to spare.”  She shrugged.  “We’re not the biggest village, so we don’t have top priority all the time.”  We stopped in front of a house that had seen better days, but it had a nice garden out front with bright flowers that didn’t seem to mind how gloomy this place seemed to be most of the time.  Lilly knocked on the door, and the two of us waited.

“Okay.  For as far back as you can remember, how many times has a healer from the Healer’s Guild come to your village when they were requested?”  I bent over to look at the flowers, noticing that it was a blend of chamomile and jasmine, along with a bunch of stuff I didn’t recognize.  Jasmine could be used to help stomach aches, and chamomile was great for nausea and fevers, especially for children.  “Looking at this, my guess would be not much.”

The door was yanked open, and a very spry Granny Crow was standing in the entryway.  “Ha!  A real healer, like I said.  Notice my little helper garden, did ya?”  She reached out and snatched Lilly’s arm, dragging her inside.  “Get yer hind ends in here.  I jus’ put a pot on the stove.”

We were herded to a table in the middle of a small kitchen, where pleasant smells drifted out of an honest-to-the-gods witches cauldron.  It bubbled happily in the stone fireplace, making my stomach grumble in sympathy.  The house was lit by an obscene number of candles, which gave off a pleasant floral scent that blended nicely with what was cooking in the cauldron.  As we waited for Granny Crow to deem the food ready to serve, she sat across from me with a serious look on her face.

“I heard ya askin’ the girl ‘bout the guilds, an I got an answer.”  Granny Crow glanced at Lilly, measuring her with her eyes.  “Ya were a young’un when the red fever took a third o’ the village.  ‘Twas when yer ma passed, and yer older sister.  We asked the guild fer aid.  Three times, we asked.  Each time, their answer was ta wait it out, same as it been the las’ dozen times there was a real sickness ‘round these parts.”

“But, they came when Miss Crawford had problems with her baby, and when Mister Douglas broke his leg.”  Lilly seemed smaller at the mention of her mother and sister passing, her voice losing the strength it had before.  “I’ve seen all kinds of guild members come when we call.”

“No, girl.  Ya seen ‘em come when there was enough coin ta make it worth their while.”  Granny Crow reached out to grab Lilly’s hands.  “If the risk is too big, their fee goes out o’ our reach.  They don’t like ta risk their own scrawny necks.”

A heavy silence settled on the room, and I cleared my throat before breaking it.  “How fast do you think they’ll come when they hear a nonmember was healing people without permission?”

Granny Crow snorted in amusement.  “How fast can a horse gallop?”  She waved a hand like she was brushing away a fly.  “It don’ matter.  They won’t hear nothin’ from us.”

“So, I don’t need to worry about the blacksmith reporting me?”  Both Lilly and Granny Crow gave me a guilty look.

“Ya noticed that, did ya?”  She shook her head.  “He knows better’n ta say somethin’ without talkin’ ta the council first.”

Lilly nodded in agreement, sitting up straighter.  “And since you just saved the life of a council member, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Let me guess, Old Man Cromegas?”  Both of them nodded yes.  Any further conversation was interrupted by the pot bubbling over, and Granny Crow deftly had bowls of thick stew placed in front of us in no time.  Like most old ladies, she knew how to cook, and I was quickly getting seconds.  While I waited for my second bowl to cool down, I remembered something important.  “By chance, where do you get the water you cook with?”

Granny Crow pointed to the rear of her house.  “I got rain barrels, like most folk.  Walkin’ back an forth to the well is for the young.”

“And where is this well, by chance?”  I happily started eating again, thankful that I wasn’t eating tainted water.  Even though I could heal myself, that didn’t mean I wanted to ingest poop water.

“Why do you want to know?”  Lilly seemed genuinely curious, so I took a few minutes to explain all the bad things that could happen when drinking water was contaminated.  Both of them were immediately concerned, and Granny Crow pulled her cauldron off the fire before rushing off into the deepening twilight.  Lilly tried hurrying me out after her, but I was determined to finish my meal.  I needed to fuel my body if I was going to be casting any more spells.  “Hurry up!  We need to keep people from drinking from the well before it’s too late.”

“Calm down.”  In my experience, telling a frantic girl to calm down had given me some very mixed results.  This time, it didn’t seem to work.  “I have no doubt Granny Crow already has things well in hand.”

By the time the two of us made it to where the well sat, half the town was there in an uproar, torches waving about like they were ready to burn down somebody’s castle.  Granny Crow was browbeating people into listening to her, so I let her keep at it.  They might believe a healer that had just healed a bunch of people, but they would definitely believe Granny Crow.

Instead of getting involved with the question and answer session, I walked over and inspected the well.  Placing my hand vertically with the palm facing me, I crossed my ring finger over my pinky and middle finger over my index finger, forming an upside down ‘V’ that I pointed at the well.  It was too dark to see the bottom, but I had magic to help me.

Sitting and eating had recharged me enough that it was easy to cast what I considered a delving spell.  It was a pulse of mana that was similar to my inspection spell, but less focused.  My control was steadily improving, and running low on mana made it even easier to make sure my spells stayed in the acceptable range of what I considered to be normal.  The sonar-like bounce told me the well was a deep one.  It relied on the water table to refill it instead of going to an aquifer or underground stream.  That meant I already knew the problem.

“Granny Crow.”  I didn’t raise my voice, but the crowd finally fell silent the moment I spoke.  “I think I know what’s causing people to get sick.  Who owns that run-down set of stables polluting your groundwater?”